the shyguard - trying to make up for the shyness through the pen "that does not have a condom yet"!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

School
and training days have taught me to clear my bowel, or “clearing the bathroom”
as it used to be called, early in the morning.They said it was healthy.I
cannot vouch whether it is so, but I can surely say that it has lot of
advantages and conveniences.Creature of
habit that I am, I have become a slave to this habit.

Another
habit that I can’t shed is my addiction to having something to read while I
attend to this business.For the life of
me I cannot help it, even on emergencies.The newspapers and books, forgotten and abandoned after I am through
with my business, strewn all over the place, especially on the bathroom
shelves, irritates my wife to no end.But old habits die hard and I don’t seem to be improving; only my
immunity towards her ramblings has improved so far.

Friday, July 19, 2013

The tradition of”Lolay” in the Wang (Thimphu region) and
the “Deepawali” (sorry if I have
misspelt it) in the Southern part of the country are similar, in that people,
the children in the former and all age groups in the later, go around the
village visiting houses and singing the lolay
and doushiri.The house owners are supposed to offer these
visitors money, food, rice and even flowers, in return for which they pray and
bless the household.

Equivalent
to the above two, there is another one that is being practiced in the east, (at
least in Pema Gatshel).I am not sure if
it is practiced in other eastern dzongkhags.It is called “Ara Phunmey”,
literally meaning, begging for drinks.The men folk would go around the village, singing songs.This is done during the Losar (New Year) and Thrui (Blessed
Rainy Day).

Though
it is called “Ara Phunmey”, it is not
only the drinks that they are offered.On top of the drinks they are also provided food and meat.The group would go around the village,
visiting every household and singing songs, some of which I don’t hear any
more.

“Ara ma ga nain bu

Singchang gala drik pey

Tshering Tshomo lu la yang chey
ru ru

Bjangchuk shing go patra

So yala tsemo lha shing shokpu ruru…”

A rough
translation of the song goes something like this, “Even if you do not give me ara (locally brewed wine), it’s alright
to offer me bangchang/singchang
(equivalent to a beer)…”

I am
not very sure if this little tradition is still observed today, but I don’t
hear the song being sung these days.

Monday, July 15, 2013

My father used to work as a
caretaker of a little government guest house, which then used to be popularly
known as IB (Inspectors’ Bungalow), in a little town that neither had
electricity nor bus services.But it was
somehow connected to the outside world through a rough and narrow road that
remained blocked most part of monsoon.Since there were no hotels then, the guest house used to see a lot of
guests, both the official types and the private visitors.There used to be a lot of ‘philingpa’ guests
(white people) too.Through such
interactions my father, it seemed, have learnt a bit of spoken English, which
he was proud of.

I remember a Mr O’Brian, a Canadian
volunteer teacher, who stayed at the guest house for about a month as there was
no accommodation at the school.Like all
‘philingpas’, Mr O’Brian was also very curious to try on many Bhutanese things
and ways.Seeing us eat a dish of chilli
he wanted to try it and so he did.I
don’t remember what he exactly said but, I do remember him literally locking
himself up in the toilet for the next two days.

Monday, January 28, 2013

Bhutanese are getting more resourceful when it comes to
naming; be it a person’s name or a name for their business entities.In the eighties and early nineties there used
to be a shop by the name “New Ideas”, located at the heart of Phuentsholing
town.Lots of criticisms were directed
at it, accusing it of not conforming to the traditional name.To this effect an article even appeared in
the opinion column of kuensel.

But today the trend seems to have changed drastically.People are getting lots of “new ideas” and
they are getting more imaginative by the day, when it comes to naming.One noticeable change is in the moniker of
people, which are getting complicated and some of them even sounding like
tongue twisters.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

I come from a small village, located at
the South Eastern part of the country.Back in the late 70s it used to be a small village of just 15
households, where everyone knew everyone.Except for two huts, all houses were made of stone and mud.All of them looked similar - dark and ancient,
in an imposing way.The roofs were
either wood shingles or slates.The
attics were used as granary cum store room and the ground floor housed the
cattle.The family lived in the first
floor, which consisted of two rooms.The
outer room served as the kitchen, dining room, drawing room and the inner one
housed the altar.The whole family
shared these two rooms.

Ours was a large family, perhaps the
largest in the village.My grandfather
used to pride about this very fact.Today we are 116 members, the progeny of our grandparents. Then, we were
seventeen dining members, including us, seven grand children.One uncle used to be away most of the time,
either for ‘woola’ (compulsory labour contribution) or ‘druk dom’ (labour
contribution for a year by a person for every six able bodied men).Another used to tend the cattle and the
supply of butter and cheese never seemed to exhaust.My mother and her sisters used to do the
household chores and weave clothes for the entire family.Life used to be a simple one then.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

“The only time we ever think about breathing is when we have
trouble doing it…” says Marty Klein, of Palo Alto, California.There are some things we take for granted and
never notice it till it is lost or endangered.Security is one such thing, in the list of a Bhutanese.It has been presented to us on a golden
platter and we made it our right and never realized how we got it and what it
took to get it and even more difficult, what it takes to maintain it.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

New Year, as per the Gregorian calendar, is just over and
it’s time for another of the few new years we, the Bhutanese celebrate, in
different parts of this small country – Lomba in Haa and Paro region,
ChunipaLosar in the East, Dasain in the
southern part and the Daw Dangpa Losar.The
immediate one due is Chunipa Losar, popularly known as ‘The Sharchokp Losar’.

And it is time for another round of
greetings – sending wishing cards (on the dwindle now), calling up friends and
families (the order of precedence here is intentional; friends are always dealt
with first, especially friends of the opposite sex type, after which comes the
family), sending text messages (sms), which is the most popular form as of now,
and finally through social networking sites, the most popular being the
facebook ( I can’t imagine how we would have managed our lives without this
facebook!).

About Me

I am a shy person, almost to the point of being an introvert, with a horrible sense of dressing (at least that’s what my wife thinks!). A social drinker and when I am a bit on the higher side (not very often though) better watch out and shelter your eardrums, because I am told that I blow my own trumpets. Otherwise you will find me a gentle soul. I love art in any form. I play a little bit of almost all musical instruments. I do a bit of pencil shading and a bit of wood carving too. Oops! Here I go again.